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Cisco a Goner after email slip-up

Networking giant's partners astonished at being sent the virus

Business partners of networking giant Cisco have expressed their surprise at having received the Goner virus from the company last week.

Speaking exclusively to vnunet.com, the vice president of worldwide marketing for a major security software partner of Cisco's said he had received the infamous virus in an email.

"I saw the name of a development manager at Cisco in my inbox and naturally thought I could trust it," he explained. "As a result, my machine was knocked out for over a day, which was very frustrating."

Goner is one of the fastest spreading viruses of the year, according to security experts. Despite being unremarkable in its design, it managed to take down the Dow Jones index on 5 December.

Cisco declined to comment on specific security issues, saying only that it had "mechanisms in place to protect both incoming and outgoing emails".

Whatever mechanism it used could not prevent it from becoming a victim of Goner, and the company has caused subsequent embarrassment to its business partners.